40% of highway projects delayed, majority of them managed by NHAI

NEW DELHI: Going by the trends, delay in completion of projects could be the biggest challenge for Narendra Modi government in meeting its target of building 30 km roads and highway by May 2016, the timeline set by highways minister Nitin Gadkari. During last financial year about 40% of projects totaling 14,000 km and costing around Rs 94,000 crore got delayed, and 70% of these are managed by NHAI and the total cost of these works is close to Rs 80,500 crore.

Sources said keeping in mind the need to have a robust mechanism in place for monitoring and quick resolution of issues, the government is now overhauling the system. "The delays are largely on account of non-availability of land, pending clearances, shifting of utilities, contractual issues and financial condition of the contractors," said a senior official in the road transport ministry. But things have improved in the past one year. NHAI officials say now there are hardly any projects where work is at a stand still. They added there recently have been no such case where projects could not start because of land availability.

"There are only a few stretches where progress is slow because of land and green clearances including one in West Bengal and another in Maharashtra. Projects those have been awarded last year and are scheduled for this year won't face major problem on account of land. But in the near future acquiring land would be a big issue," said an NHAI official.

He added that in case of Chennai-Tada stretch in Tamil Nadu, NHAI avoided acquiring land and found a technical solution to build road within the available road width.

Road ministry sources said that they would soon compile project-wise details of issues so that quick solutions can be found as and when they arise. Monitoring would be the key for the next 2-3 years since most of the fresh works would be rolled out on government-funding mode. "Most of these projects would be two-and-a-half lanes and we need less land for this. But for four and six-laning we have to go for major acquisition, which is set to be a major challenge," another NHAI official said.

TOI has learnt that though number of projects delayed is high in the case of stretches managed by the road ministry or state agencies, the total length covered is less and so is the cost. Most of these projects are delayed by less than a year while in case of works undertaken by NHAI the delays are longer.

According to sources, NHAI was implementing 185 projects during 2014-15 costing Rs 1.36 lakh crore. Out of the 185 projects, 120 were delayed. This covered 9,376 km and their total cost was around Rs 80,500 crore.

In the case of road projects in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) impacted areas, about 60 out of 100 projects faced delay. This covered about 2,200 km and the cost comes close to Rs 3,418 crore.

In the case of SARDP-NE, a special programme for the North-East, about 29 projects got delayed. These cover 1,378 km and the total investment is around Rs 6,605 crore.

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